


Pizza Night

by HeartsInJeopardy



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Fluff and Angst, Gen, Stargazing, pizza party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-18 14:08:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18701155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartsInJeopardy/pseuds/HeartsInJeopardy
Summary: As the Avengers unwind after a hard day of planning and prepping for the mission, Nebula learns a little more about her human teammates.





	Pizza Night

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a happy story about the team after seeing Endgame, and here it is... Except I got carried away and things get a bit angsty toward the end. This is also my first Avengers fic. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> *Some spoilers for Avengers: Endgame*

“Be careful,” Clint warned. “That one has pineapple on it.”

“I don’t know what a pine apple is,” Nebula said matter-of-factly. But the others saw her dark eyes narrow at the chunks of yellow fruit on her pizza slice.

“What if they only have Hawaiian pizza in space?” Scott wondered.

Clint scoffed. “She just said she doesn’t know what a pineapple is.”

“I said what if…” Scott muttered, taking another slice from the nearest box. “Like, hypothetically. That would be bad.”

They sat at tables spread out on the Avengers Facility’s lawn, enjoying dinner in the warm night air after a busy day of planning and prepping for their mission.

Tony picked up the bill for the impressive spread of pizza, snacks, soda, and hard drinks.

Scott had wondered if the billionaire was simply showing off with the huge order, but to his surprise the team had already eaten through most of the food. He actually lost track of how many pieces Thor had scooped up, clutching two at once with a beer bottle in his free hand. And, of course, Bruce took several whole pies for himself.

“Is your S.H.I.E.L.D. file right, Scott?” Natasha piped up beside Nebula. “Are you really 50, or is that a typo?”

Scott furrowed his brow. “I guess so. Unless you count the time I spent in the Quantum Realm? And between you and me, I think Bruce brought me back a few years younger than I was supposed to be.”

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Rhodey asked. He stepped over to their table, hunting through the pizza boxes for another slice of Veggie Lover’s. “I’m on the wrong side of 50 myself.”

“That’s actually very believable,” Clint said with a wry smile.

He caught the bottle cap Rhodey flicked at him in response just inches before his face. He sent it flying back straight at Rhodey’s ear.

He jumped back, nearly stepping on Rocket, whose paws were fiddling with Rhodey’s leg braces. The small alien yelped.

“If you stood still I could get my job done a lot faster,” he grumbled.

“I told you already not to worry about it.” Rhodey shoved rocket away by his bushy head, and almost got his fingers nipped in the process.

“Alright!” Rocket threw up his paws. “But when your gyros wear out in six months because ‘the smartest man on Earth’ can’t design his way out of a cardboard box, don’t come crying to me.”

“Rocket.” Nebula leaned over to tug at his jumpsuit. “How many standard planetary cycles are 50 Earth years?”

“Only 56,” he replied.

The cyborg squinted at Scott from across the table. “That cannot be true,” she muttered to herself.

Tony strode over to their table with a smile, and rubbed a hand over Nebula’s bald, blue head. Rocket flinched, expecting an angry outburst, but Nebula only glanced up at Tony.

“Blue Meanie,” he said affectionately. “I saw you were stuck at the kids’ table. How do you like the pizza?”

“Better than the trail mix we shared on the _Benatar_ ,” she said. The corner of her mouth curled up in what might have been a smile.

“You’re right, _that_ was bad. And such small portions too.”

“Hey.” Rhodey took a pair of bottles from a cooler beside the table. “We’ve thought over the bad memories long enough, let’s make some good ones.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Tony said, taking one of the bottles and tapping the neck against Rhodey’s.

The others at the table joined the toast, raising their glasses and drinks. Nebula copied them, staring at the fizzy soda in her glass before taking a hesitant sip.

Rocket wandered off, joining Bruce and Thor at the less crowded table nearby.

The pudgy god was several minutes into a rambling story about one of his many battles. Bruce sat in the grass beside him, nodding serenely.

“I think you told that one yesterday, big guy,” Rocket interrupted.

He scampered onto the table and pulled several discarded crusts from the nearest pizza box.

“I don’t mean to entertain you, rabbit,” Thor said, his words slurring. “I was holding court.”

“To who?” Rocket chewed one of the crusts between his pointed teeth. “It looks like the bigger guy tuned you out already.”

Thor pushed up the sunglasses – Rocket had noticed they almost never came off, even at night – and seemed to realize suddenly that his company had drifted away.

Bruce snapped to attention, patting Thor on the shoulder with a huge green hand.

“No, that was a good one buddy.” He reached for another pizza box and turned to Rocket. “Did you get a look at the schematics I put on the terminal?”

“Do you ever get tired of talking shop?” Rocket asked through a mouthful of crust.

“Not really.”

“Good. Me neither.”

It was Thor’s turn to lose interest, and soon he was loudly snoring as the two eggheads talked through all sorts of complex technical quandaries. Natasha woke him with a light tap on his cheek.

“Don’t let these two intimidate you with those big words.” She smiled at Bruce.

“I understand your Earthly sciences,” Thor said through a loud yawn. “I simply don’t care.”

“That makes two of us,” she told him.

“Act cool all you like.” Bruce cocked his head. “But who do you call when the settings get screwed up on the TV in the lounge?”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. Tony was too busy.”

“And I can still barely make heads or tails of those things.”

Steve, dressed in sweats, was just back from his pre-dinner run around the facility but hardly sweating. He took a water bottle from one of the coolers.

“You missed an enthralling conversation about servos,” Thor said, taking a long draught from his bottle.

“Yeah.” Steve laughed. “That sounds like one of Tony’s parties.”

He turned around at a tap on his shoulder from Nebula. She leaned toward him on her tips of her toes, studying his face closely.

“Settle a wager for me,” she said. “How old are you? In Earth years.”

Steve smiled sheepishly. “You stop keeping track after a while. It’s hard to fit 100 candles on a cake.”

Nebula turned to Natasha, her eyebrows raised. She nodded.

“Nothing on this planet makes sense,” Nebula said, shaking her head. “Of course Quill was born here.”

“I’m guessing you didn’t win that bet.” Steve shrugged. “Sorry.”

“If you’re sorry you can pay Clint the 20 human ‘bucks’ he won,” she said through gritted teeth.

Natasha furrowed her brow and turned sharply toward the other table. “Clint,” she called. “No taking advantage of the aliens.”

Noisy laughter rose up from the other group in response.

“Don’t play darts with him either,” Rocket warned Nebula. “I don’t even know how much I lost.”

***

The party moved inside soon after, and then ended altogether as the team members drifted back to their rooms to get some sleep.

Nebula was one of the first to leave, stepping outside on her way across the lawn, to where the _Benatar_ was parked. There were plenty of rooms available indoors, but she was used to her bunk on the ship.

Her keen eyes, trained to search constantly for threats since she was a child, spotted Clint lying in the grass right away. She approached him cautiously, stepping forward in total silence.

“Hey,” he said.

Nebula cursed under her breath. She was getting sloppy if someone could hear her sneak up on them.

He didn’t look toward her or even move a muscle. He just lay on the ground, staring up at the sky with his hands folded behind the head.

“Hello,” Nebula said, unsure of what, exactly, she had stumbled onto.

“Got tired of the party?” he asked casually.

Nebula couldn’t restrain her curiosity any longer. “What are you doing?”

“Stargazing.”

“I can see that,” she said through gritted teeth. “I meant _why_.”

He rolled his head to the side slightly, locking eyes with her. “It’s just nice to look at the stars,” he said. “It’s something we do.”

She clenched her fists, looking between him and the night sky above. As far as she could tell, he was telling the truth. But it still sounded ridiculous.

Her father had certainly never lain down in a field to stare up at the stars. The other Guardians had _looked_ at the stars, but never devoted their time just to staring at them. Not even Quill.

Maybe, she thought, it’s only a pastime for the humans who spend their entire lives on one planet.

“You want to try?” Clint asked. He had already turned his attention away from her, staring back up at the sky.

She watched him for a long moment, waiting for some sign. But he barely moved at all. She crouched down, then stretched out her legs, and finally lay down in the grass, a few feet away from him.

Despite the glowing guide lights atop the building, they were far enough from the city lights to see plenty of stars.

Nebula identified the band of brighter light that dappled the sky as the Milky Way from local star charts. But the countless dazzling stars interested her the most. Soon her head was swiveling back and forth, taking in the wide vista of sky stretching above her in all directions.

There was something to this stargazing, she decided.

“I’m sorry about your sister,” Clint said suddenly.

Nebula had no idea how long silence had settled over them before his words broke it. She said nothing.

“I don’t pretend to understand everything Bruce and Tony are planning,” he said, his voice just loud enough to carry between them. “But they say when all this is over – if we pull this off, I mean – it probably won’t bring her back.”

“The Infinity Stones didn’t kill my sister,” she said plainly. “My father did.”

Her voice stayed level, stoic, but fury burned inside Nebula as she spoke. There was sorrow, too, because she knew that what Clint said was almost definitely true.

“So I just wanted to say I’m sorry,” he said. “And thank you.”

Nebula turned her head toward him. Clint didn’t react, but obviously noticed the gesture, because he quickly explained.

“I lost… everything. The snap took my whole life away.”

He paused, staring up at the sky, and something prompted Nebula to turn her eyes away from him.

“And if I didn’t think I could bring back everyone I lost, I don’t know if I could go through with something like this,” he continued. “So it means a lot to me, and the rest of the team, that you’re here.”

Nebula thought of so many things she wanted to say.

She wanted to remind him of the friends _she_ had lost, and explain how badly she wanted to see them again. Or to tell him just what it would mean to her if she reversed the damage her father had done.

But Nebula knew she could not tell Clint any of this. Not now, not yet.

“Get some rest,” she said, rising to her feet and walking off toward the _Benatar_. “We have a lot of work to do.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you made it this far please share your thoughts! I love feedback, good or bad.


End file.
